Much has been made of the physicality in this year’s Blackhawks-Canucks series. While the Canucks hold a substantial (+46) advantage in the overall credited hits column, they also (according to official scorers in Vancouver) collected a hefty 40 to 14 margin over Chicago in Game 5. This on a night the Canucks were shutout in their home rink and have worked themselves into a situation where they could see their season slipping away if they don’t get their act together fast.

Now one aspect sometimes overlooked when analyzing hit counts is that if one team has the puck, they’re not looking for hits or finishing checks. So if one team owns the puck for a great majority of the game, or is sitting back protecting a hefty lead (which the Hawks were in Game 5 as well) they’re not forechecking as hard and thus not finishing as many checks. Thus why hit counts can oftentimes be misleading.

By periods in Game 5, Vancouver out-hit Chicago 12-4. 17-5 and 11-5.

From a Blackhawks’ perspective you can see how certain players such as Bryan Bickell and Viktor Stalberg have dug into their roles and pressured the Canucks when they’ve been on the ice. They along with Troy Brouwer (the Hawks regular season hits leader) and Chris Campoli on the blue line have been the most physical Hawks. Read more »

Those of you who download the mp3 file can right-click here. The show is two hours long so its a rather large file this time around.

Dieter Kurtenbach joined the fray as well. We all gave our first-round predictions; discussed Alain Vigneault’s brain, Ben Smith’s game, Bryan Bickell’s aspirations to be the best $525,000 perimeter player in the game, an entire line of Frolik’s, Tomas Kopecky’s next contract, Electric Football, the Rockford IceHogs, sports writers ending sentences with exclamation points, Forklift’s bold prediction, Blackhawk Hope, keys to the series, Herb Abrams, the worst upcoming crop of 1,000 game players you could ever imagine, the “people’s prospect”, Micah Hoffpauir, USA Network drama, chicken nuggets in business suits and so much more.

It was a fun time as always with the Hockeenight guys. Thanks to them as always for sharing their time with us. Check out their show each and every week for a unique brand of wit and cantor you can only find there.

On the home front, I apologize for disappearing for the past week. I was shot down by a bad virus. And of course the timing was just perfect. I’ll have NHL awards, first round and playoff predictions up over the next two days.